News Brief

6/9/2014, Sivan 11, 5774

Senior Le Pen Criticized by Daughter, Party Leader

Founder Jean-Marie Le Pen of France's extreme-right Front National (FN National Front) was criticized by his daughter and other party figures, Sunday for what anti-racism forces described as an anti-Semitic pun, according to Agence France Presse. Referring to critics, including Jewish singer Patrick Bruel, in a video clip since removed from the FN website, the senior Le Pen said he would be part of "a batch we will get next time," using the word "fournee" for "batch", evoking the word "four", which means "oven".

Current FN leader Marine Le Pen gave a guarded response saying that her father had made a "political error" but that the "meaning given to his comments is a malicious interpretation." FN vice president Louis Aliot, who is also Marine's boyfriend, criticized it as "a bad phrase. It is politically stupid and dismaying." Another FN lawmaker, Gilbert Collard, said it was time for the party founder to "take his retirement". The 85-year-old Le Pen reacted by saying: "If there are people in my camp that have interpreted it in this way, they are nothing but imbeciles," denying any anti-Semitic overtones in the remark.